(CNN)–Imagine that the president of the United States had to sit and listen to you for 30 minutes in a public setting. Imagine that he couldn't escape and had to endure whatever you said. If you disagreed with him politically, would you try to embarrass him? What would you say?

Well, this actually happened to me. A year ago I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an event attended by the president, first lady, vice president, and 3,500 other dignitaries. No one was more shocked at the invitation than I. Previous speakers include Mother Teresa, Tony Blair and Bono. No pressure.

By the way, I disagree with the president in some important ways. But as a Christian, God commands me to love those with whom I disagree, to treat them with civility and respect, as creatures made in God's image. That's a command, not a request or a suggestion. Again, no pressure.

In my speech I spoke about my heroes, William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Wilberforce's faith led him to fight for the Africans being enslaved by the British; Bonhoeffer's faith led him to fight for the Jews being persecuted by the Nazis. I used them as examples of people who passionately lived out their faith by standing up for their fellow human beings when most around them merely gave it lip service.

I also joked around a lot, because as any of my friends will tell you, one of the ways I show love is by joking and teasing people. Who said prayer breakfasts had to be boring? At one point I said that George W. Bush had read my Bonhoeffer book, and then I glanced at President Obama and said "No pressure." I'm glad he laughed!

Later in my speech, I talked specifically about the idea of loving our enemies. I said this was the test of real faith. Speaking to my fellow pro-lifers, I said that those of us who believe the unborn to be human beings must love those on the other side of that issue. I also said that those of us with a traditionally biblical view of sexuality are sometimes demonized as bigots, but we must love even those who call us bigots. I cited Wilberforce and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as two men who took seriously God's command to love their enemies in the midst of the most serious political battles of their day. They honored God in how they fought, and he honored them.

At the end of the breakfast the president told me he would read my book on Bonhoeffer, and Vice President Biden took my picture with the president. No kidding. It was an extraordinary day and I'm not telling the half of it.

President Barack Obama holds up a book given to him by author Eric Metaxas

But the reason I'm writing now is that during the past election I was disappointed to see the president's campaign utterly abandoning these ideals of treating your opponents as you yourself would wish to be treated. Good people with principled and profound convictions about when life begins were cynically demonized as "enemies of women." Americans who had worked hard to build businesses, and who had given millions to charity and to the government, were denounced as fat-cats who weren't "paying their fair share" and whose wealth was ill-gotten gain.

These scorched-earth tactics were not presidential, much less Christian, and because the president openly professes a Christian faith, I feel I must speak about this.

Of course many will dismiss campaign hardball rhetoric as "what works." This is to miss the point. What we say matters deeply, and how we say it matters deeply. All of it has serious long-term consequences. For all of us.

For one thing, our children are watching and listening. We tell them it's less important who wins or loses than how we play the game. Is there no truth to this at all? Do we not see that this behavior erodes faith in the very political process and in democracy itself? Do we not see that by doing this we encourage our opponents to do the same - and worse - the next time around? Shouldn't we care about that?

Any victory won in an ugly way is somehow a tainted victory. In this case, the president has "won" a deeply divided nation, one that he - alas - has had a hand in dividing. Now what?

If he is to succeed in the tremendous challenges that lay ahead, he must repent of these tactics and must make amends with his opponents, if it's not too late. Or else he will face gridlock and more gridlock. He also must show the door to those who cynically encouraged this "winning is the only thing" behavior.

His legacy and America's future depend upon it. Many will be praying for him.

No pressure.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eric Metaxas.

soundoff(2,208 Responses)

Jon Armes

I don't believe what I just read, You start out by saying that God commands those of us who are Christians to love those with whom we disagree with, I agree then why don't you do an article about those who do so much harm to the Christian faith and our country who say they are Christians yet speak and show hate to our President on a daily basis they devided the country more then any to me because we as Christians should be the salt and light. Now if you don't like someone its easy to point all the things you disagree with, with that person but when you set out to destroy the President or any thing he tries then Some good Christian should point that out.Example fox news spews hate and lies and half truths about the President and his polices its a shame the other day a navy seal said the President said something about the military by comparing them with welfare and a hand out thats not what happened even Bill orielly praised the President for his work with the military in his interview. Listen if this country is every going to get much better then we are white Christians and conservative christians have to start doing what God commands us to do and it starts at home. Tell the shawn Hanniditys and those who profess to be Christian call them out in a loving way but this must stop. Just think how many people and how many times Christian conservatives and white Christians say hateful and mean things and lies imaging how many black Christians and black kids start forming neg feelings towards their supposed to be brothers and sisters in Christ start to take shape not good we need to see white Christians and conservative Christians speak uh because Gods commands us to. { ps} Even Glen Beck said he divided the country on pour pose Where are my brother sisters in Christ at

Apr. 25, 2013 — A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth has provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory for studying the nature of gravity. The extremely strong gravity of a massive neutron star in orbit with a companion white dwarf star puts competing theories of gravity to a test more stringent than any available before

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130425142250.htm

Hey James Madison................religion has none it looks like.............with the comments on this blog.

The Big question is ETHICS ! does religion have any ?

The Ethics of Resurrecting Extinct Species

Apr. 8, 2013 — At some point, scientists may be able to bring back extinct animals, and perhaps early humans, raising questions of ethics and environmental disruption.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130408165955.htm

April 30, 2013 at 4:16 pm | Report abuse |

May 1, 2013 at 12:42 pm | Report abuse |

Dinosaur Egg Study Supports Evolutionary Link Between Birds and Dinosaurs: How Troodon Likely Hatched Its Young

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130418104324.htm

And NO ANGELS the pope KICKED them OFF the TEAM last year !

From Soup to Cells—the Origin of Life

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIE2aOriginoflife.shtml

the wrong path is Adam and Eve !

Human Y Chromosome Much Older Than Previously Thought

Mar. 4, 2013 — The discovery and analysis of an extremely rare African American Y chromosome pushes back the time of the most recent common ancestor for the Y chromosome lineage tree to 338,000 years ago. This time predates the age of the oldest known anatomically modern human fossils.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130305145821.htm

No god(s) needed or required to graduate from public schools in the US

Remember : Adam had to POKE himself hard with his OWN BONE to create Eve.

Apr. 23, 2013 — Ancient DNA recovered from a series of skeletons in central Germany up to 7,500 years old has been used to reconstruct the first detailed genetic history of modern Europe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423134037.htm

Ca-nabis and Cannabinoids (PDQ®) – National Cancer Insti-tute

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/.../page4

Mar 21, 2013 – [1,2] These plant-derived compounds may be referred to as phytocannabinoids. ... have a protective effect against the development of certain types of tumors. ... In lung cancer cell lines, CBD upregulated ICAM-1, leading to ...

Good stuff !

The fact...............the earth is to old for this nonsemse ! Time to EVOLVE !

Ancient Earth Crust Stored in Deep Mantle

Apr. 24, 2013 — Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth's crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie's Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130424132705.htm

For what...................... ? Make sure to read what the pope said !

Where do morals come from?

By Kelly Murray, CNN

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/

Learning is fun with facts.......................... and facts work when teaching children.

Pope praises science, but insists God created world updated Thur October 28, 2010
Stephen Hawking is wrong, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday – God did create the universe. The pope didn't actually mention the world-famous scientist, who argues in a book published last month that the laws of physics show there is no need for a supreme... \

Heaven is 'a fairy story,' scientist Stephen Hawking says updated Tue May 17, 2011
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor The concept of heaven or any kind of afterlife is a "fairy story," famed British scientist Stephen Hawking said in a newspaper interview this week. "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when...

NASA: Three planets found are some of best candidates so far for habitable worlds outside our solar system.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/planet-discovery/index.html

NASA: Mars could have supported life

Star Dust we are

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWdU_px9ApE&w=640&h=390]

Holy Hallucinations 35

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XTCRdC8Dlo&w=640&h=390]

The ORIGIN story is bullsh-it...............so is the bible............... nasty !

From Soup to Cells—the Origin of Life

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIE2aOriginoflife.shtml

BBC. Planet of the Apemen. Battle for Earth 1. Ho-mo Erectus

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUliLKSJ4bQ&w=640&h=390]

BACKFILL on E =mc2.....

Einstein letter, set for auction, shows scientist challenging idea of God, being 'chosen'

By Jessica Ravitz, CNN

Decades before atheist scientist and author Richard Dawkins called God a "delusion," one world-renowned physicist – Albert Einstein – was weighing in on faith matters with his own strong words.

“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends,” Einstein wrote in German in a 1954 letter that will be auctioned on eBay later this month. "No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.”

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/category/culture-science/

May 4, 2013 at 6:47 am | Report abuse |

Peace

May 4, 2013 at 9:30 am |

Bill

Clearly Obama and the Democrats are the ones to originate hate and fear-mongering political strategies. Seriously?! History people. History – Republicans began this ugly style. Both should be ashamed. It's simple trickery to blame the winner and an easy way for the author to get press. After all, who's going to read about the runner up, what's his name?

January 13, 2013 at 6:24 pm |

Chance

Correction you pointed out that religion is hurting Americas education.

I said I could make a argument the the religious type would strive to excel in school. One point as you stated would be the decline of Christianity and corresponding decline of math and science scores.

December 13, 2012 at 10:47 am |

Just call me Lucifer

Your god just watched 18 innocent children get slaughtered in Connecticut. Thats some god you've got.

December 14, 2012 at 6:21 pm |

ttwp

That's right...let's blame this on God.

We push God out of our live, marriages, families, and schools...then want to blame him when the world falls apart.

God is not to blame. The evil one comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But those with darkened hearts and blinded eyes cannot see this.

December 16, 2012 at 2:13 pm |

Chance

Correction your saying that religion has brought our scores down.

I said I could make a case that the religious type would strive to achieve in school. Your point of the decline of Christianity in
America and decline of education is exactly what I'm talking about. This argument helps my point.

December 13, 2012 at 10:42 am |

Nietodarwin

The news today, our 8th graders are scoring low in science and math than many other countries. What a surprise!!! We live in a country where over %40 of the adults are still so ignorant as to believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old, where that many deny evolution is a FACT and the foundation of modern biology. (It was nice to see Mr. TV Religion Pat Robertson come out and say "If you fight science, you're going to lose your kids.) RELIGION IS THE ENEMY OF OUR WELL BEING AS A NATION.

December 12, 2012 at 1:51 pm |

Chance

Why use religion as a escape goat? If you think religion is solely responsible for low scores in science and math you clearly have a agenda against religion. We live in a society that doesn't value hard work; kids see TV and think they can have the "good life" by becoming a reality star and so on...If kids don't excel in school its not because of religion, I could argue that the religious type would strive to excel in school to set a example of how to carry oneself in life. Teachers are paid poorly, schools have poor funding to name the two large problems with our education system. Also to afford college is difficult in this economy, not impossible but difficult. I agree the nations is falling behind the curve but blaming religion is a failing to take responsibility and not a solution. We need to instill in our kids that working hard towards education will have a big return in life and lead to a better quality of life. Kids that fall behind the curve have their priority's wrong; trust me kids aren't sacrificing general education to become pastors.

December 13, 2012 at 10:13 am |

netwiz123

Weirdly contradicting your assessment of a decline in education is that at the same time there has been a decline in Christianity in America. So under your premise then test scores should have increased and not decreased. Maybe you're actually making the case that drawing correct conclusions about the existence of an Intelligent Creator is a predicate for active learning and academic success.

December 13, 2012 at 10:18 am |

Chance

By the way the age of the Earth is not a standard in Christianity. The 10,000 yr old earth theory is not what's holding math and science back. Modern cosmology is the foundation for the belief of many believers and further knowledge is highly sought after.

December 13, 2012 at 10:38 am |

Chance

Posted new comment....

wrong thread...

Correction you pointed out that religion is hurting Americas education.

I said I could make a argument the the religious type would strive to excel in school. One point as you stated would be the decline of Christianity and corresponding decline of math and science scores.

December 13, 2012 at 10:49 am |

Chance

I don't think changing over to ID will do the job either. The problem is in society as a whole, kids aren't being brought up with the idea of working hard towards education so you can have a good life. Everyone wants to get rich quick... morality has fell off and so has general education.

December 13, 2012 at 10:56 am |

ttwp

The wicked are worried about math and science scores not realzing we have a greater need...of God himself.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.